Wild and formidable warriors, dedicating their life to the bushido, a strict code which required loyalty and honor up to the death, the samurais are the symbol of the history of Japan. Through a set of remarkable works: complete armors, helmets, masks, weapons, come to discover their warlike universe and be allowed be a surprise by the sophistication of their lifestyle.

With the long peace period which settles down from the XVIIth century, this class of warriors was transformed, indeed, into a new nobility which trains the intellectual elite of the Japanese company. While practising the martial arts, the samurais devote then to new more sophisticated disciplines, contrasting with the violence of the art of the fight, such the calligraphy, the poetry, the literature or still the ceremony of the tea and the game of the incense.

A book and an exhibition photo schedule to discover the calligraphic work of TSUDA Itsuo (1914-1984), writer and master of Aikido.

The class of Daimyos plays an essential role in the Japanese history in the second half of the feudal period (of the XVth in the XIXth century). The exhibition of the museum will gather for the first time an exceptional set stemming from French, private and public collections. All in all, thirty three armors as well as of luxurious ornaments associated to the Japanese warlike imagination: helmets, weapons, textiles…

“The term “dô”, the “way”, is often associated with Japanese traditional arts. He contains two different meanings. The first one is the way which allows raising the ethics and the morality of the time question of which it is. It is the way of the studies of the heart, the “way of the shingaku”. The second is the one which increases the strength of life of every human being and who allows to reach the summit of any techniques. It is the way of the rules of the heart, the “way of the shinpô”. These two ways are mixed, such a braided rope, and often perceived as one and the same way. Most of the Japanese think that “dô” is the “way of the shingaku”. I am going to speak to you about the way of the shinpô, such as she is passed on, and of the aikido which lives in our everyday life.”